RedNote Is Quick Turning into the Common American’s Window Into China

• RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, has taken the West by storm.
• TikTok customers have flocked to RedNote forward of the looming ban on their app.
• The sudden inflow of customers has created a mass cultural trade, however specialists say it could not final.

For over a decade, China’s social media has been dwelling in its personal world.

With out entry to YouTube, Fb, Google, or Instagram, the nation as an alternative depends on native apps resembling BiliBili, Weibo, Baidu, and, extra not too long ago — Xiaohongshu.

Xiaohongshu, now identified in English as RedNote, remodeled in a single day right into a bridge between the realms of China’s web and America’s, as a sudden wave of US customers downloaded the app this week in anticipation of a nationwide ban on TikTok.

RedNote’s rise was comparatively latest within the Chinese language area, with the app solely gaining important mainstream traction from 2018 onward.

It is most frequently in comparison with Instagram, with a heavy give attention to images introduced by way of a grid-like feed. In China, it has been largely outlined as a well-liked app for magnificence and life-style content material, particularly amongst younger ladies.

Then got here the looming TikTok ban and the People. By Monday, RedNote grew to become essentially the most downloaded iPhone app within the US. As of Thursday night, it nonetheless holds the highest spot.

The sudden surge in curiosity in RedNote comes as TikTok inches nearer to its divest-or-ban deadline on January 19. The Senate handed a regulation in April that might require TikTok to cease working within the US if it did not divest itself from its Chinese language-based proprietor, ByteDance.

Final week, TikTok appealed to the Supreme Courtroom for an emergency injunction to pause the divestment deadline. The courtroom is predicted to rule on TikTok’s destiny this week.

New US customers, calling themselves “TikTok Refugees,” flooded the platform with memes and introduction movies. In flip, their Chinese language counterparts uploaded welcome posts and guides on use Chinese language on-line slang. Some even requested for assist with their English homework.

Cultural trade on a mass scale

It is a mass cultural trade on an unprecedented scale.

Worldwide customers usually have little incentive or alternative to dive into Chinese language social media apps, which cater to native audiences and are sometimes locked behind strict consumer necessities that align with Beijing’s authorities requirements.

Weibo, for instance, requires all customers to register with their full names, and the app shows their location and gender to different customers.

Even TikTok, based by Chinese language firm Bytedance, is separate from China’s model of the app, Douyin.

Cross-border interactions on RedNote have been principally pleasant, at a time when US-China tensions have dominated international politics.

“It is so superb to have you ever right here,” stated one Chinese language consumer in a viral publish. “For thus lengthy, we have not been in a position to join or discuss to one another like this. However now we lastly can, and it feels so particular.”

His video, titled “American associates please keep right here,” acquired over 174,000 likes.

Some customers started internet hosting “cultural trade” livestream audio chats, inviting younger American and Chinese language folks to debate their lives and befriend one another. One such livestream, seen by Enterprise Insider, was watched by 70,000 customers, with lots of tuning in at a time.

Too early to inform how RedNote will affect US-China relations

Researchers and lecturers who examine US-China relations instructed BI they’re watching the area with curiosity, however that it is nonetheless too early to say how the RedNote migration may play out.

“I believe it is probably true that many Chinese language are interacting with People for the primary time,” stated Stanley Rosen, a professor of political science on the College of Southern California’s US-China Institute.

Rosen stated China’s authorities may initially be happy by the inflow of American customers to RedNote, given how Beijing has criticized the upcoming ban on TikTok. Congressional leaders who voted to move the divest-or-ban regulation in opposition to ByteDance had cited considerations about Chinese language possession.

However Rosen added that letting Chinese language and American customers mingle en masse might ultimately disrupt Beijing’s cautious governance of its on-line platforms. For example, a Chinese language particular person’s complaints about low pay could possibly be met with well-intentioned — but probably contentious — replies from People, who may counsel forming a union or occurring strike, Rosen stated.

American customers are nonetheless topic to Chinese language guidelines on RedNote. For instance, two writers from the leisure information web site The Wrap reported on Wednesday that they uploaded a publish in regards to the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. protests — a closely censored subject on the Chinese language web — and located that it was taken down inside 5 minutes.

Alfred Wu, an affiliate professor on the Lee Kuan Yew Faculty of Public Coverage on the Nationwide College of Singapore, instructed BI that it is unlikely that any pleasant interactions on RedNote would affect US-China relations.

“The tensions between these nations are based mostly on very long-term issues,” Wu stated.

“I believe this kind of ardour will die very quickly,” he added.

RedNote’s reputation might not final

In truth, RedNote’s newfound reputation within the West might simply find yourself being a brief phenomenon.

Natalie Pang, an affiliate professor on the Nationwide College of Singapore’s division of communications and new media, instructed BI that such large consumer migrations from one platform to a different have not all the time been sustainable.

“A few years in the past, when WhatsApp introduced sure options on their platform, folks additionally left WhatsApp and migrated to Sign, however these migrations weren’t sustained,” Pang stated.

Platforms are solely in a position to retain these new customers if their community strikes together with them, she added.

“Now we have to know that these ‘TikTok Refugees’ are shifting to Xiaohongshu as a part of a protest in opposition to the TikTok ban. So if we perceive this transfer as a part of a protest, then I believe we’ll see extra sustained migration towards the platform if curiosity within the protest continues,” Pang stated.

That stated, TikTok might not be out of the sport simply but.

The social media platform might get some reprieve from President-elect Donald Trump, who is ready to take workplace on January 20, a day after the divestment deadline passes.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago final month and plans to attend Trump’s inauguration.

Trump had pushed for a ban on TikTok throughout his first time period, however has since reversed his place on the platform. The president-elect filed an amicus temporary with the Supreme Courtroom on December 27, asking the courtroom to pause the deadline in order that he might give you a political decision.

“You realize, I’ve a heat spot in my coronary heart for TikTok,” Trump instructed reporters at a press convention final month.

On Wednesday, Trump’s decide for nationwide safety advisor, Mike Waltz, stated in an interview with Fox Information that Trump would “discover a technique to protect” TikTok.

“He’s a dealmaker. I do not wish to get forward of our government orders, however we’ll create the area to place that deal in place,” Waltz stated.